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Sabbia is proud to present a new body of work by Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott, one of the most dynamic and enduring partnerships in contemporary Australian glass. Across three decades of collaboration, they have developed a shared visual language that unites Ben’s refined blown forms with Kathy’s expressive carved surfaces—each artist pushing the other into new understandings of material, technique and possibility.
Created between Canberra Glassworks, where Kathy undertook a focused residency, and the hot shop, where Ben produced the luminous forms that underpin their practice, this new series reflects the evolution of their long-standing creative dialogue. The Spaces Between highlights their commitment to experimentation, trust and the continual expansion of their collaborative vocabulary.
Edols and Elliott’s work has shaped the field of contemporary glass both in Australia and internationally. Their pieces have been exhibited widely and are held in major public and private collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, the Toyama Glass Museum in Japan and the National Gallery of Australia. This new body of work stands as a testament to their ongoing innovation and the enduring strength of their partnership.
‘In recent times I feel as though we have seen the veneer of civilisation we all acknowledged was keeping a general lid on chaos around the world start to crumble. It makes this work more pertinent to me as the imagery of powerful, surging bodies of water is a continuing metaphor for me of existing in a world of chaos. The questions I ask myself are; what is our steady rock, can we create opportunity in times of upheaval, what can we hope for?
Once again having the processes of blowing glass and carving glass to turn to as a refuge from circumstances that are outside our control is a relief and we are able to get swept up in doing what we both love.
For Ben challenging himself in the hotshop, the camaraderie of working in a team and the intense focus of applying their skill to create beautiful objects under extreme pressure is where he thrives. The pieces in this show are complex ; blown by a team of three glassblowers using multiple processes and colours – to have them survive the blowing process is a win.
For me, I love the process of using the carving wheels to work towards creating a design on the glass, the looking, the thinking, the stages of rough carving through to detailing. Having a relationship with the work as it evolves over time. There is risk taking in the carving process because these pieces are beautiful before I cut them. Will it be an improvement, will it be cohesive with the body of work we have already made, will it be interesting to me’?
Kathy Elliott, March 2026
